FF11 "Classic Fresh" - WoW is rebooting classic! How would you launch XI Classic?

[Lortheron]

I mean, it isn't. things are constantly changing in the MMO universe. Many long time players of FFXIV feel the same way about where things are going since they started as you do at this point.

Indeed, I remember promises of implementing things like the elements well and healing spells damaging undead, etc., making the overall game more complex and more like FFXI, that was back in 2.0, up until Ninja came out... then Heaven'sWard came and at the end of it, all hope was lost. Instances everywhere, no open world content, claustrophobic feeling, no huge areas to explore, world feels very small, lore makes zero sense, list goes on... turns out it went the WoW clone route, and plays like an easy single player game that forces players to do tons of extra easy content without any difficulty option in order to progress.

[Lortheron]

It's depressing to me that the future of FF mmorpgs is going to be like ff14 now, because that userbase simply is more happy to be higher monetized.

Very casual, very easy, very care bear community, very monetized (and happy to be), very moderated, very flashy and over the top.

I agree, the game should be less solo, and way less claustrophobic and instanced, with a lot more open world content and vast areas (FFXIV that is). The game could've went a totally different route even back in 2.0, but it went the full dumbed down WoW clone route instead, a missed opportunity. And anything remotely considered slightly complex or difficult at all is removed and streamlined FAST each and every update. It does not respect the player's intelligence. Having to content with segregated ~10% content that is engaging (Salvages and Extremes) and only available after one has done days of braindead easy content is ridiculous.

I used to like FFXIV back in 2.0 and had hopes for it, but alas it has turned into simply a very commercial game made to appeal to each and every person one way or another...

[Lortheron]

What works for WoW isn't guaranteed to work for other games. See the other "classic server" topic we just had and all the ones before that. SE has already said "Not happening."

The WoW team has the resources and community size to launch a whole bunch of versions of the same game. the FFXI team does not. The community isn't big enough for that either.

That said, I think they would stand to gain from promoting the game to FFXIV players, if they did it right by offering a combined subscription promotion and making improvements to the UI and stuff to be easier for people used to modern MMOs. The unfortunate reality is they did have such a UI in development at one point (which a few of us got to try a VERY early version of on the test server back when we had one), but it was sadly scrapped.

What about Everquest1? It has a smaller community and less resources than FFXI and it's being treated much better by it's developers, it also has more than one timelocked server (classic servers with some modern improvements and QoL) with different rulesets. Even Dark Age of Camelot got graphics updates and interface updates as well as some new content, and it has servers with different rulesets to please people whom don't like the latest expansions, all with a fraction of the recourses and community FFXI has.

Square Enix simply decides not to invest money back into FFXI and allocates resources elsewhere, It's quite obvious that not even half the money people whom play FFXI pay to Square Enix goes back into the same game.

[Alhanelem]

Indeed, I remember promises of implementing things like the elements well and healing spells damaging undead, etc., making the overall game more complex and more like FFXI, that was back in 2.0, up until Ninja came out... then Heaven'sWard came and at the end of it, all hope was lost. Instances everywhere, no open world content, claustrophobic feeling, no huge areas to explore, world feels very small, lore makes zero sense, list goes on... turns out it went the WoW clone route, and plays like an easy single player game that forces players to do tons of extra easy content without any difficulty option in order to progress.

I take issue with many of your statements here, but the point was that all MMOs will be different in several years vs wh en they released. You have to keep adding and changing t hings to keep players interest. Of course, there will always be those who don't like the direction it takes as well as those who get happier with the changes in direction. Such is life.


And somewhat ironically, in recent days people have been flocking from WoW to FFXIV as the better game of the two, and WoW has almost been cloning FFXIV more than the other way around.


As far as FFXI goes, personally, while it has changed a lot over the years, even if I stop playing for a while, for some reason I always find my way back lol. It just has a charm that is just missing from a lot of games to day of all types. Despite the changes and conveinences and even the level cap rise and subsequent content, the game has stayed relatively true to what it is and where it came from, never doing things just because everyone else has done it, but only because they think it's genuinely a good idea to do said things.

[Alhanelem]

What about Everquest1? It has a smaller community and less resources than FFXI and it's being treated much better by it's developers

I don't think this statement (about the size of the EQ community) is accurate.

As far as about how and where and why money gets spent, it's all about percieved return on investment. The higher ups just don't see the likelyhood of return on the level of investment required to do those things.

They very well could end up doing something big, but it's probably going to be a new project. Sequel in the same world or something that wou ld be actually likely to generate new interest and worth investing a full project budget on.

We could find out next year at the 20th anniversary when the Voracious Resurgence concludes. Frankly, despite the lack of resources being granted by the higher-ups, when i look at the FFXI staff in the digests, I see people who are genuinely interested and care about their project and maybe even look a little frustrated that they aren't given the resources to do more. I will fantasize that a (not mobile) remake will happen where we can carry over at least something from the XI of yore.

The reason is that FFXI was built on PS2 hardware, and this ends up making it remarkably more difficult (and thus more costly) to make the kind of changes other games which were developed on and for PC natively can do. To really give the game the kind of makeover it needs to be relevant today would require it to be mostly rebuilt from the ground up. An "FFXI-2" could get a full game budget to do that, possibly, but it would be to cost prohibitive for too little return to do for FFXI proper, most likely.